Lord Garden: My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway, for initiating this important debate. It has been valuable to hear from every one of the noble and gallant Lords and those of your Lordships who take a special interest in the Armed Forces. I especially congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Moonie, on an excellent maiden speech; he made several important points that I think that we will take forward when we consider the Armed Forces Bill.
	Inevitably, the debate has focused on the particulars of individual cases; Trooper Williams has been central to many speeches. Badly handled individual cases may not be the most appropriate way to generalise major changes in law. There are lessons to be learnt from the specifics of the Trooper Williams case and others mentioned by your Lordships about how they are handled, but there are separate issues about what that means for the legal and disciplinary regime under which our Armed Forces operate.
	A debate covering similar issues took place in the other place on 14 June. In opening the debate, Mr Julian Brazier said:
	"we owe a special duty of care to those men and women who are required to take daily risks with their lives on our behalf, and to carry duties that no other job requires. The military structure has to provide them with a working environment in which there are clearly understood rules, and with an ethos that enabled men and women who regard themselves as ordinary to deliver quite extraordinary things again and again".—[Official Report, Commons, 14/6/05; col. 227.]
	I associate those of us on these Benches with those remarks. We are extraordinarily fortunate because we have a military of which we can be rightly proud. We must also ensure that we do not allow the Government of the day—of whatever colour—to exploit the loyalty and lack of voice of our Armed Forces.
	However, we must also consider what makes our military work in that way. Why do they, almost always without exception, operate within the rule of law? Hence, they are the most effective in both war-fighting situations and in the difficult operations in support of civil power. The number of cases in which British forces are alleged to be operating beyond the law are very few, given the range of worldwide operations that we are now undertaking and the provocations under which they find themselves in many of them.
	We have been rightly described as having a role in the world of being a force for good. But to operate within the rule of law requires that our forces are subject to the rule of law. We are not excused from our responsibilities because some of our enemies ignore human rights and the Geneva Convention. In Iraq, our aim is to promote democracy and the rule of law. That means that we must operate within those rules. If we try to justify a lower standard, I fear we are on a slippery slope.
	We have seen at Abu Ghraib where an ambiguous message from above can lead. Most importantly, such abuses of human rights lead to resentment in the population and feed insurgencies that may mean that ultimately we lose the battle. The noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, made an important contribution on the question of accountability. We cannot ignore it.
	Our ratification of the International Criminal Court was a major step forward for this country in progress towards a better world. The Government were right to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights in our national law. We should not ignore the obligations under which both those measures put us. Those obligations also include rights, which apply to our servicemen as well.
	Although some noble Lords have raised the concern that the ICC could come into play in a case against a UK service person, we support the Government view that there would have to be a catastrophic failure of the UK criminal justice system for the ICC to assume jurisdiction. It is not helpful to worry our Armed Forces by suggesting otherwise.
	From that, noble Lords will understand that we are not sympathetic to the calls for exemptions for our military when on operations. However, that does not mean that we can be content with the way that our Armed Forces have been supported by the Government in their difficult work. The cases we have heard about demonstrate that there is a real problem that the MoD must address urgently.
	Mistakes were made in the handling of the Trooper Williams case, as we have heard. There was a blunder that led to overturning the commanding officer's decision. The second blunder was, with the benefit of hindsight, a misjudgment about going for trial in a case that would not succeed. Those errors were compounded by the unacceptable delay that Trooper Williams suffered. It is the individual who suffers, who is worried. To have to live for two years under the fear of imprisonment for murder is unacceptable. I do not doubt that the Minister will assure us that Trooper Williams received every support from the MoD, but there seems to be a valid argument that more could and should have been done. We have begun to grow too used to the MoD hardening its collective heart to the detriment of individuals in the Armed Forces.
	The noble Baroness, Lady Park of Monmouth, was right to draw our attention yet again to the duty of care. We have queried whether the MoD is meeting its duty of care in so many areas recently. The duty of care that the Government have to our Armed Forces is greater than to any other sector of their employees. They cannot go on strike; they cannot speak out; they must go where they are sent and, if necessary, be prepared to give their lives.
	The lesson from the Trooper Williams case and others in the pipeline is surely that the MoD must investigate all allegations promptly, fully and dispassionately, not assuming guilt. That means providing the necessary resources in military investigators and legal expertise. We cannot have months go past with those accused in a legal limbo.
	If we need evidence that that is a problem, we need go no further than a case that has not been mentioned today: that involving the tragic death of a five year-old girl caught up in the ropes of a recreational balloon being operated by a soldier. It was written up in yesterday's Guardian. It has taken two years to come to court martial. Judge Blackett, the judge of the case, is reported as saying:
	"The army prosecution service is to be criticised severely for letting the case run for so long. Lack of budget and manpower resources is simply no excuse when dealing with homicide".
	He is right; those timescales are fair neither to the accused nor to the victims. I trust that the Minister will assure us that the Ministry of Defence is increasing the number of personnel in both the legal services and the investigation units, so that we can shorten those timescales.
	Commanding officers must be able to depend on the legal advice that they receive in reviewing cases. I hope that we shall hear some further explanation of what went wrong in the Williams case, and what is being done to rectify the situation. Further, in the event that a member of the Armed Forces has to face civilian charges and a civilian court, he or she must receive full support on the basis that a person is innocent until proved guilty.
	We are all justly proud of our Armed Forces who are now being asked to operate in the most difficult of circumstances under the rule of law. The vast majority manage to do this with outstanding results. But there will inevitably be allegations from time to time that must be investigated swiftly. When there is evidence of wrongdoing those involved must be brought to trial. Our military achieves all that it does by operating under the rule of law without exemption. The thoughts that we might look towards new applications of manslaughter instead of murder are important issues raised in today's debate, which I hope we will take forward when we consider the Armed Forces Bill.
	The current set of rules do not compromise the chain of command provided that everyone does his job properly. That must include proper support from the Ministry of Defence.